Sonia Boyce: Like Love- Parts One & Two

Part 1 of this exhibition was Sonia Boyce collaborating with young parents. She showed students videos of young parents talking and the show is based around their reactions. I like how she has asked people the same age to comment on each other because this could be a touchy subject. She created a range of work from words on window panels, to words on canvases, with the words being quotes from the students. One white canvas showed tiny letters scattered around saying, "I'm not a boy.. shhhh" to another one saying, "I think she wanted it". These quotes are quite hard hitting because at the end of the day a baby is life, where ever it came from and whoever id the parents.

For part 2 of this exhibition Boyce worked in collaboration with the Blue Room at the Bluecoat. She was working along side people with learning difficulties and talking to them about their love and life. The layout of the room was 3 TV screens on the wall showing 3 people from the Blue Room. The TVs start and stop to take it in turns for each person to talk about their love. While this is happening and you start to get to know these people there is a big projection on the wall with all of the collaborators dancing and having a good time on Crosby beach. The whole set up makes you feel enlightened to see people, previously discussing first loves and so on just simply having a good time.

There is many contrasts in this whole room to the stillness of TVs stopping to then the sudden movement and talking. The naivety of the people with learning difficulties to them knowing a lot. The dancing brings up the rehearsed and natural and from having a conversation to it being staged.

Action curated by Sonia Boyce

In the exhibition 'Action' curated by Sonia Boyce was an interesting mix of artists. There were two artists in particular who caught my eye; Appau Boakye-Yiadom and Beverly Bennett.

Appau Boakye-Yiadom's pieces were about objects having an inner-more. He makes such objects as jelly, melons and bubble gum have a personality and makes them come to life with no human characterises backing it up which i think is very clever.

The piece to the left is called 'Melon n ball' parts 1-4 which is a video showing the melon in four different scenario's. In this particular one the melon is hiding behind the ball and slowly starts poking out, as if it is shy.

Beverly Bennett is an interesting artist because her work is all about gestural marks. She wants to put a sense of unease to the viewer from scratching, dragging, piercing and cutting paper in a way that makes you almost feel sorry for the treatment of the paper. She uses pin, forks and knives as implements to create these pieces which once know makes the work make you feel even more uneasy, as if these implements were present.

In the picture to the left Bennett has cut tiny pieces of paper and pinned them in different arrangements on boards. The piece is disturbing because its almost as if shes torturing the paper; dissecting it into small bits and pinning down in a decorative way. I can honestly say this piece made me feel uneasy!

Rise of Women Artists at the Walker

This was an exhibition full of influential pieces through the times from women. The funny thing was some of the pieces may have been made by men.

I was really intrigued by the embroidery pieces you come across at the start of the exhibition. One by Edit Waterworth called 'Panel for fire screen' 1920 which gave the piece purpose as a household object. Waterworth was a student at Liverpool School of Art so its great to see local artist taking part in such an important exhibition. There is a very strong symmetrical pattern which makes this piece charming and can see past owners getting a lot of please out of it. The dears are a symbol of women, brings up roots in the past and screams British heritage. This piece is so close to home i love it but i wander if international artists would look at it as such a gem.

This piece to the right is 'English Family China' 1998 by an artist called Christine Borland. In this picture is porcelain skulls of different sizes with Chinese style paintings on them all laid out on tables. This piece is about the import and export of cotton slaves to help Liverpool's industry which reflects with the material of porcelain. The way the skulls are arranged on dissection tables symbolise the breaking up of families during the slave trade. This shows that the way artists arrange their work in a space is important and can increase the meaning of the work. I think the skulls are beautifully made and are very British.

In my work i need to start thinking of how to present my work a bit 'mad'. I have always been interested in how canvases are hung so i drew a canvas that could be hung any way but it depends on which way you see it to what you see in the picture and which bit stands out.


I these pictures you can see different things more prominently when the canvas is turned. See if you can spot where the train and smoke is coming from, the penguin, octopus, and the silhouette of a person smoking.